Cash-strapped cinemas to be hired by courts so juries can follow cases on the big screen

CASH-strapped cinemas will be given a lifeline by allowing juries to follow cases on the big screen under new plans. Their screens would be hired by courts to clear the backlog of cases. The idea was floated as some jury trials are already being scheduled for 2022 and courts need to plough through about 40,000 […]

CASH-strapped cinemas will be given a lifeline by allowing juries to follow cases on the big screen under new plans.

Their screens would be hired by courts to clear the backlog of cases.

Rex Features

Cash-strapped cinemas will be given a lifeline[/caption]

The idea was floated as some jury trials are already being scheduled for 2022 and courts need to plough through about 40,000 outstanding cases.

It would mean the trial judge, legal teams, defendants and witnesses being miles from the remote juries.

Talks are taking place in Whitehall after the Cineworld chain closed for six months and opening days at Odeon cinemas were cut back.

The owner of Odeon says it could even run out of cash by the end of the year as blockbusters get pushed back.

One Government official last night said: “This is being talked about as a real possibility.

“These plans are further down the line and likely to become reality in Scotland.”

Rex Features

The moves comes as courts need to hear around 40,000 outstanding cases[/caption]

Alamy Live News

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said: ‘We must keep going if we are to get our courts back up to speed’[/caption]

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland recently said: “We must keep going if we are to get our courts back up to speed.”

The first remote jury trial taking place in a cinema took place in Scotland at the beginning of the month.

Jurors watched a trial from an Odeon cinema from a retail park outside of Edinburgh.

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